Malaria hits second Penan village

Star: MIRI: Another semi-nomadic Penan settlement in the Bario highlands has been infected with malaria.
Semirian village, located at the mountain range bordering the Sarawak-Kalimantan border some 450km inland from here has been identified by the Sarawak Health and Medical Services Department as the latest danger zone.
At the other village, Arur Dalan, which is located some 30km away from Semirian, 21 people are down with the disease that causes extreme fever, coma and even death.
Ba’Kelalan assemblyman Nelson Balang Rining said the latest information he obtained from the State Health and Medical Services Department yesterday morning indicated that the malaria outbreak in Semirian and Arur Dalan could be connected.
“The health department officers have interviewed victims in Arur Dalan.
“They said it is possible that a resident in Arur Dalan had carried in him the malaria-causing parasite from Semirian following a visit to that village.
“We must make every effort to destroy the Anopheles mosquitoes so they will not spread the disease,” he told The Star.
Several health teams are also carrying out a full-scale anti-malaria campaign in the Bario highlands, which has a population of about 5,000.